Like earlier versions of Microsoft® Outlook®, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 includes a feature called remote mail that allows you to manage your e-mail messages without downloading them from the server. Although you might not believe that you need yet another way to retrieve your messages, remote mail offers advantages that you’ll come to appreciate over time.
Originally, remote mail was primarily a feature for Microsoft Exchange Server, but other e-mail accounts can take advantage of similar capabilities (which, for the sake of simplicity, this chapter refers to generically as remote mail). For example, with Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) accounts, you can download just message headers to review your messages before downloading the message bodies and attachments. The process is similar for all these types of accounts, although POP3 and Exchange Server accounts offer additional options.
This chapter focuses specifically on using remote mail for non–Exchange Server accounts. It explains how to set up your system to use remote mail for IMAP, HTTP, and POP3 accounts; how to manage your messages through remote mail; and how to use alternatives to remote mail, such as send/receive groups.
Note
For detailed information about configuring and using the remote mail feature for Exchange Server accounts, see "Using Remote Mail" in Chapter 43.
The primary advantage of using remote mail is the ability to work with message headers of waiting messages without downloading the messages themselves. You can simply connect to the e-mail server, download the headers for new messages, and disconnect. You can then take your time reviewing the message headers to decide which messages to download, which ones to delete without reading, and which ones to leave on the server to handle later. After you’ve made your decisions and marked the headers accordingly, you can connect again and download those messages you’ve marked to retrieve, either leaving the others on the server or deleting them.
Remote mail is extremely useful when you’re pressed for time but have a message with a large attachment waiting on the server. You might want to retrieve only your most critical messages without spending the time or connect charges to download that message and its attachment. To accomplish this, you can connect with remote mail and select the messages you want to download, leaving the one with the large attachment on the server until a less busy time when you can download it across the network or through a broadband Internet connection.
Remote mail is also useful when you discover a corrupt message in your mailbox, a message with a very large attachment, or a message that you suspect could be infected with a virus, and the message might otherwise prevent Outlook 2007 from downloading your messages. You can connect with remote mail, delete the offending message without downloading it, and then continue working normally.
Note
With the exception of Microsoft Hotmail® accounts, which require a paid account for POP3 access, remote mail works only for the Inbox; you can’t use it to synchronize other folders. With a Hotmail account, you can download headers for the Inbox, Deleted Items, Junk Mail, and Sent Items folders.
Outlook 2007 offers remote mail for several types of accounts, with differing capabilities. All of the following accounts allow you to download and mark message headers without downloading the messages themselves:
Exchange Server. By marking the message headers, you can indicate which messages to download and which to delete from the server. In addition, you can specify conditions that determine which messages are downloaded—for example, those with particular subjects, those from certain senders, those smaller than a specified size, or those without attachments. You can mark messages offline.
Note
See "Using Remote Mail" in Chapter 43 to learn more about remote mail features for Exchange Server accounts.
POP3. By marking the message headers, you can indicate which messages should be moved from the server to your system, which messages should be downloaded with a copy left on the server, and which messages should be deleted from the server without being downloaded. You also can specify a size limit and download only messages that are smaller than the specified size; for messages that exceed the size limit, you can download headers only. You can mark messages offline.
IMAP and HTTP. By marking the message headers, you can indicate which messages to download and which to delete from the server. Both types of accounts store mail on the server, so marking to download a copy isn’t relevant (as it is for a POP3 account), because a copy of the message stays on the server anyway. With an HTTP account, you must be online to mark message headers for deletion; IMAP accounts allow you to mark for deletion while offline. You don’t have any special options for selective or conditional processing with either type of account.
Non–Exchange Server accounts generally deliver messages to a personal folders (.pst) file, although you can configure POP3 accounts to download messages from the POP3 server and place them in your Exchange Server Inbox. If your POP3 account delivers mail to your Exchange Server mailbox, you can use remote mail with the account as long as you’re connected to the Exchange Server while you’re using remote mail on the POP3 account. For example, assume that you connect over the local area network (LAN) to the Exchange Server but connect to a POP3 account by modem. In that scenario, you’d be able to use remote mail through the Exchange Server for the POP3 account.
In another scenario, assume that you dial into your LAN to work with your Exchange Server account, and the remote access server also provides connectivity to the Internet. Your POP3 account delivers mail to your Exchange Server mailbox. In this case, you can use remote mail for both accounts because you have access to your mail store. The key is that to use remote mail, you must have access to your mail store so that Outlook 2007 has a place to deliver the downloaded message headers.
If you don’t use Exchange Server, you don’t need to do anything special to configure your system to use remote mail. Because your mail store is local, you have access to it all the time (unless the server at your ISP is down or offline).
To use remote mail, you need a connection to the remote server. Generally, this takes the form of a dial-up connection, either to the server’s network or to the Internet. If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to set up a dial-up connection to the appropriate point.